SXSW Adventure Doesn’t Stop at Austin City Limits for Laura Stevenson Band

AUSTIN, Texas — Pingpong, houseboats, nature hikes and the epic quest for ever-elusive parking spots are just a few of the many adventures indie-folk singer/songwriter Laura Stevenson and her band encountered during this year’s South by Southwest, their second time playing the gigantic music festival here.

“Last time, we were just like, ‘Aaaaghhh, we’re just gonna play everything, and it’s gonna be crazy,’ and we had no idea what was going on and we were overwhelmed,” Stevenson says in the Wired video above. “This time was a little less crazy on the playing shows front.”

After the four-day drive from Brooklyn — during which the radio in their white Ford E-350 van played everything from Dolly Parton and Anthony Kiedis audiobooks to songs by Katy Perry and The Aquabats — the band arrived Tuesday in Austin. With no gig until the following night, the group members took the opportunity to see their friend Chris Gethard perform a comedy show that involved an interactive game of pin the tail on the donkey in which the loser would stand blindfolded in the middle of 6th Street holding a sign. That loser would end up being Gethard himself, and by the end of the show he could be found standing in the center of a crowd of people screaming at the tops of their lungs (much to his confusion, since he had not been aware of the sign’s message: “Scream at me for free money.”)

After Gethard’s performance, Stevenson and her bandmates — accordion/piano player Alex Billig, bass player Mike Campbell, drummer Dave Garwacke and guitarist Peter Naddeo — hopped in their van and left the chaos of Austin for the calm of nearby Lake Travis. Stevenson’s uncle lives there on a parrot-adorned houseboat named Margaritaville, which comfortably slept the seven occupants of the band’s van for the next three nights.

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